What does a grade mean?

'Tis the season to give thanks for everything we are grateful for in our lives.  Often we find ourselves in a monotonous routine that does not provide time for reflection and thoughtfulness to what is important to our existence.  Hopefully, everyone enjoyed the latest 5 day break and is looking forward to an additional reprieve during Winter Break! Before we begin our break, we have 10 school days left to impact our students.  This is a time of year when students become excited (for the holidays) and unfortunately depressed (because of the holidays) and we must continue to implement effective, engaging lesson plans that provide structure.

When developing plans student mastery is the objective of every excellent lesson!  To ensure student mastery the objective must have a measurable verb, but what happens when the student does not master the objective?  Do we give the student a poor grade and then move forward with the next objective?  What does the grade really mean?  Does the grade truly measure what we want the student to demonstrate knowledge of?  Grading is a subjective process and a long standing staple of the educational system.  Below you will find articles discussing grades and the importance or lack thereof.  However, as we look forward into how or why we grade we also must deal with the fact student g.p.a's are still reviewed at the college level.  (Please remember all of these articles are to stimulate your thinking and do not necessarily represent my opinions!)    

 Why its time to give up grades?

Do you give zeros?

5 Principles of Assessment

Standards based grading

Now that you have reviewed the four articles above...what are your thoughts?  Please comment your thoughts on grading to this blog!  I am curious to everyone's perspectives.  Recently, I spoke with local principals and superintendents regarding this issue and their consensus is our parents are not ready for this change.  However, I believe we will always make the best decisions for our students regardless of how difficult it may be!

Calendar

Monday 12/8/14 Board meeting - 6 p.m.

Tuesday 12/9/14 Math and Science Night -  5:30

Thursday 12/11/14 PBIS Meeting - 2:45

Monday 12/15/14 Class Mtgs PBIS - 2nd, 3rd, 4th Periods

Monday 12/15/14 Choir Concert -  6:30

Friday 12/19/14 PBIS Whole School Celebration - All day